'Psych' is a little too kooky

Reason is the hero of the new USA series ``Psych," where the sensory stomps on the extrasensory every week for a few silly laughs. On this comic mystery series, going into the light is strictly a tonal issue that has nothing to do with life, death, and the heavenly glow. The story of a fake psychic who solves crimes with the help of his photographic memory, ``Psych" premieres tonight at 10.

Our quirky hero is an unemployed slacker named Shawn (James Roday ). As a kid, Shawn's cop father (Corbin Bernsen ) trained him to scrutinize his surroundings, and he has grown into a memorization freak with a nose for criminal logic. In tonight's special 90-minute episode, we see him dupe the Santa Barbara police into paying him for his ``otherworldly" advice. To fully convince them he's channeling information from beyond, he frequently erupts into screwball twitches and crazy eye-twinkles.

This being the cozy world of USA, Shawn always ends up working with the same two detectives, Carlton Lassiter ( Timothy Omundson ) and Juliet O'Hara (Maggie Lawson ), who suspect Shawn is a fraud. They resent the fact that Shawn always beats them to the solution of the crime, although Juliet seems to be secretly smitten with him.

USA seems to have built ``Psych" solely to follow ``Monk" on its Friday lineup. Another mystery series rigged up around a post- ``Columbo" neurotic, it feels more like a programming move than a creative endeavor. The mystery plots are as flimsy as those on ``Monk," but Roday doesn't have a quarter of the presence of Tony Shalhoub . The hammy younger actor isn't quite as cute as he thinks he is, and he belongs on a louder comedy series , a laugh-track sitcom in which his clowning might fit in more naturally. He's all prefab eccentricity.

The sweet surprise on ``Psych" is Dule Hill as Shawn's reticent best friend, Gus. Hill makes more sense as a comic actor than I expected from his dutiful work on ``The West Wing," and his prissiness in the face of Shawn's bold lies can be amusing. He's irritated by his friend's kookiness, and we can identify with him.